On December 30, 2019 Syd Mead passed away at his home in Pasadena, CA at 86 years of age. He was an industrial designer and visual futurist famous for his contributions to films such as Alien, Tron, and Blade Runner. Relevant to this blog, however, is his involvement in Turn A Gundam. He was its […]
Jan 1, 2020 • Subscribe
More like this
Iconic Designer & Concept Artist Syd Mead Passes Away
By lukeford.net – http://www.lukeford.net/Images/photos4/071209/41.htm, CC BY-SA 2.5, Link On December 30, news outlets reported that influential industrial designer and neofuturistic concept artist Syd Mead passed away. He was…
Closing Comments by Syd Mead for “Mead Gundam”
Mead Gundam is a 321-page book featuring design drawings, concept sketches, and notes & annotations by the late Syd Mead pertaining to his work on Turn A Gundam. Below…
An Overview of Turn A Gundam’s Animation Directors
An Animation Director (作画監督, sakuga kantoku) or AD, colloquially known as sakkan (作監) in Japanese, is responsible for maintaining the quality and consistency of the animation of an…
Newtype Magazine (06/1999) – Interview with Syd Mead
The following is a translation from the June 1999 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability. This interview is conducted by Rikao…
Mecha designer interview, October 2022
From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium fan club magazine Vol. 15, October 2022: Junichiro Tamamori has been designing UNCF mecha from the beginning of the remake era, up to…
Newtype Magazine (05/1999) – Q&A with Akira Yasuda, Kunio Okawara, and Syd Mead
The following is a translation from the May 1999 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability. Illustration by Masahiro Yamane.
Newtype Magazine (04/2000) – Examining Turn A Gundam’s Main Scriptwriters
The following is a translation from the April 2000 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability. THE MIRACLE OF WORDS Naturally, the appeal…
Yamato 2205 mecha designer interviews, Oct 2021
With each new remake project, fans look forward to how the groundbreaking design work of the originals gets refreshed for modern eyes. Yamato 2205 takes that another step…
Yamato 3199 mecha designer interview, April 2023
Special Talk Exploring the hints of 3199 Yamato Junichiro Tamamori (Mechanical designer) X Shosuke Uechi (CG director) The fascination of the mechanic expression of Space Battleship Yamato, which…
A Glimpse of Garden of Remembrance with Naoko Yamada
A summary of Naoko Yamada and Eunyoung Choi’s presentation of Garden of Remembrance at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The Heike Story, A Silent Voice, Liz and the Blue Bird, Lu Over the Wall
Mead Gundam
One year ago Syd Mead passed away. He left behind a legacy that shall continue to be remembered. A visual futurist and industrial designer, he contributed much to…
Towards a Historiography of Gundam’s One Year War
Gundam could be considered reader-hostile considering the lengths it makes fans go to in order to reach its stories.
Towards a Historiography of Gundam’s One Year War
Gundam could be considered reader-hostile considering the lengths it makes fans go to in order to reach its stories.
A Beam Rifle in Precure?! Z Gundam’s Iconic Sound Effect
Mobile Suit Z Gundam is a classic anime series, a successful sequel and a template for other 80s robot anime. One aspect of it that really sticks in…
Behind Gundam’s Creation
During the production of the first Gundam, many of the staff believed it was a failure—that it would become another one of the many anime lost to time.…
Mecha March – What’s in a Design?
It's Mecha March and in order for this momentous occasion, Scott and I are taking a good long look at some great Mecha designs.
Turn A Gundam Staff, Production, and Episode Analyses – OP1 “Turn A Turn”
Welcome to yet another new series of blog posts! This is one I’ve had in mind for a while, and I’m rewatching the show (for, if I recall,…
Urusei Yatsura – 25 – Remembrance of Moms Lost
When Ryuunosuke spots Ten sleeping in a tree and delivers him safely home to Lum, she’s invited to dinner with Moroboshis. Ataru’s mom, who may be mistaking her…
INTERVIEW: Garden of Remembrance Director Naoko Yamada
"The reason why I create anime is because I have a huge respect for human beings in general; what everyone thinks, what people are feeling, what they're going…
AnoHana Episode Six: Remembrance…
The gang begins to make major realizations and the path to letting Menma rest finally begins to reveal itself.
The futility of a mecha warmachine.
Will the anime mecha design ever work? It turns out that mechas are just like my hopes and dreams. They will never come true.
Syd Mead’s First Mobile Suits
Tom dives further into the publication history of Syd Mead’s Gundam movie concept art and examines rarely seen original sketches.
The History and Production of Turn A Gundam: Part IV – The Era of Turn A Gundam
Continuing my series of articles detailing the history and production of Turn A Gundam! My goal is to provide an accessible source of context and knowledge for reference…
New Project Announcement: “Turn A no iyashi”—the healing power of Turn A Gundam
A while back I acquired a holy gem—”Turn A no iyashi”, which literally translates to “Cure of Turn A”, but I think a more appropriately localized title would…
The Roles of “Characters” in Mecha Anime
Sometimes, you’ll see a wild claim about mecha anime, like “Gurren-Lagann was the first giant robot series to be about characters instead of the robots,” and it inevitably…
Dual Builds Complete! HGCC Turn “A” Gundam ✕ HGBF Turn “A” Gundam Shin
Managed to finish this double build roughly a month after opening the bags of runners. The build itself was okay and there weren’t really that many hiccups along…
Tonikaku Cawaii Chapter 209 (Remembrance #Tonikawa)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Tonikaku Cawaii Chapter 209. Tsukasa recalls her mysterious friend of the past (the emperor). Nasa spoils Tsukasa.
Ordinal Scale - From Requiem and Remembrance
Getting down the the wire with the SAO series, this time covering the movie Ordinal Scale, which reflects back on the start of SAO as the series continues…
Turn A Gundam Character Heights
Gundam character heights have been a hot topic lately due to The Witch from Mercury’s Suletta being unusually tall for a protagonist. She’s 170cm, which places her as…
More light on Turn A
I have more things I want to do here, but for now work has me very busy. In the meantime, though, let me point out that my friend…
Dual Builds Are Back! HGCC Turn “A” Gundam ✕ HGBF Turn “A” Gundam Shin
Got a bit slow and took me five days to finish the Entry Grade RX-78-2 Gundam. Yep, five days, for an Entry Grade. But then again, I was…
Remembrance of Mortality Makes You Appreciate the Life You Have.
During the first episode of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, a zombie apocalypse strikes Tokyo, and protagonist Akira Tendou’s sudden…
Is RahXephon a mecha show?
When I was writing about Evangelion, I said the angels don’t matter. Perhaps it could be better stated that the angels are only important to the story when…
HARM - A Mecha Short Story
HARM This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people...
Turn A Gundam: Wind of the Moon ~Loran’s Day~
Tsuki no Kaze (Wind of the Moon) ~Loran’s Day~ is a manga one-shot by Akiman published in the 03/2004 issue of Gundam Ace. It led into the proper…
I’m Hosting a Turn A Gundam Giveaway!
Hi folks! If you follow me on Twitter then you’re probably already aware, but I’ve teamed up with Nozomi Entertainment to host a Turn A Gundam giveaway. Nozomi…
Unlucky Clover: The Story of Gundam’s Ill-Fated Toy Sponsorship
Like all good giant robot shows, Mobile Suit Gundam had a proper toy sponsor. Unfortunately, the brightly colored metallic toys were utterly at odds with the show’s more…
Unlucky Clover: The Story of Gundam’s Ill-Fated Toy Sponsorship
Like all good giant robot shows, Mobile Suit Gundam had a proper toy sponsor. Unfortunately, the brightly colored metallic toys were utterly at odds with the show’s more…
8 Mecha Isekai Anime About Robots in a Fantasy World
Mecha isekai anime is fairly rare, but not too uncommon. You definitely have to look a lot harder for it, though. If you enjoy both mecha and isekai,…
Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar, Aura Battler Dunbine, Escaflowne, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
Active Raid: 2nd A Good Season of Mecha cops.
Best random use of out of nowhere swearing that I’ve seen in a long time. Where are you going to see a character nonchalantly call someone a “scumwad…
Turn A Gundam Staff, Production, and Episode Analyses – Episode #16 “All About Turn A”
Turn A Gundam’s sixteenth episode was broadcast on Fuji TV on July 23, 1999. Turn A Gundam’s sixteenth episode was broadcast on Fuji TV on July 16, 1999.
Designer Kathleen Reilly Reveals What It’s Like Working in Japan
Winning awards is nothing new to this Scotland-born, Tokyo-based metalwork artist and designer.
Higround Summons Designer Yu-Gi-Oh! Keyboards in Limited Drop
Check out these designer gaming keyboards featuring iconic monsters from Yu-Gi-Oh!. They’re the centerpieces of a new Yu-Gi-Oh! collaboration from Higround, a Los Angeles-based computer perip…
Turn A Gundam Custom Made Figurines
In the past year I’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with Etsy artist ClayBum on custom-made Turn A Gundam figurines. So, I wanted to make a little post…
Beauty And Oppression: Turn A Gundam
Support me: https://www.patreon.com/spirit_chaser Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Contreras2992 My Anime List: https://myanimelist.net/profile/Spirit_Chaser Anilist: https://anilist.co/user/SpiritChaser Sources: https://tsukinomayu.com/2021/03/28/the-history-and-production-of-turn-a-gundam-part-i-victory-gundam-battling-depression/ Big thanks and credit to Feez for making the presentation on Turn a No Iyashi. It is a book Tomino…
Lines and Grays! Work-in-Progress #1: Turn “A” Dual Build
I just noticed that whenever I’m doing these dual builds, the first work-in-progress post often happens after building the head and torso. You can check the other ones…
Turn A Gundam Volume 4, Chapter 19 – “The Militia in Space”
Apologies for the long delay, but the next chapter is now available for download. This manga is an adaptation of Turn A Gundam’s story by Atsushi Souga. While it…
The Origins of Mecha: Introduction
An introduction to an ongoing series of articles that trace the history of the Mecha genre, starting with its very earliest days.
Age of Yamato mecha notes
In these pages from the Age of Yamato movie program book, Mecha Designer Junichiro Tamamori and Animator Kia Asamiya discuss the thought process behind the highlight of the…